Fragile, Broken Things
by carved in the sand
Summary: What a shame we all remain - SasuSaku


**A/N:** _(This was posted on tumblr first and got pretty popular, so before you review asking/accusing, YES, I am tumblr user sabukus. Hit me with an ask there to confirm.) So basically, this was inspired by another one of my one shots "The Shame We All Became" and chapter 627. This has been slightly tweaked for spelling errors and flow. It's basically one of my favorite things I've ever written ever because of how honestly it depicts SasuSaku for me. Treat it with love, alright?_

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**What a shame, what a shame we all remain**

**Such fragile, broken things**

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The water dripping from between the cracks in the ceiling was off tempo to the rhythm of his breathing. Eye level to his clavicle, the lazy rise and fall of his chest kept her hypnotized. She did not want to meet his eyes yet. Oxygen and the chakra restraining bars were the only things keeping them apart. It didn't quite scare her as it should have, but he'd lost that glint in his eyes long before they stood where they were.

Sasuke had become familiar again.

Still, it unnerved her in a way. She hadn't been this close in a long time.

Her hands, small and pale and more calloused than a man twice her age, gripped the bars harshly at random moments with her flexing nervously as she drank in his presence.

It was all too surreal to her. One moment, he's fighting along side with her, as if they were twelve again - except smarter, stronger, and understanding of all the heartache the world had to offer them - and then the next he's being arrested, tied up like an animal with chakra bindings with her furious protests suffocating them all.

Naruto left bruises from her forearms trying to keep her from running him, from ripping away his chains, and right before she'd managed to free herself, he'd told her to leave him be.

Sakura was left screaming promises to see him again.

Now at two in the morning, with her anxiety imprinting purplish weights under her eyes, the pink haired girl had nothing but questions at the tip of her tongue and calculations on how long she'd get to stay with him - how long she'd waste this time with silence. Her blood had grown cold inside of her veins, sluggish and unable to let her slip past her apprehension with this cold boy.

Finally, the words tumbled from her lips of their own accord.

"I don't understand you. That's the only thing that's really the same," Sakura murmured, voice carrying too loudly in the prison, smelling of stale water and decay. She tasted the misery on the back of her tongue with each unwilling inhale. "Why now? After _everything_? All we did to bring you back, what made you jump in and fight with us? Why, Sasuke?"

He took a long, heaving breathe, as if inhaling all the answers he wanted to tell her. Sasuke stared down at her with unwashed sincerity and rawness in his eyes. The words came out much slower for him. "Shinobi endure. They endure a great deal for their goals. And my brother endured too much for this village...I couldn't lay waste to it."

Sakura bit her lip, looked down, stared at their sandal-clad toes that were too close as well. The last time their feet had been this close, they'd been ready to spill each other's blood all over the snow. But now, after many months, many deaths, and practically a lifetime of heartache later, the look in her eyes made her think of the twelve year old boy that she was in love with - the twelve year old boy that she promised to do anything for.

It wasn't the same. He was colder, his very skin permeating a chill that she could not ignore. And his eyes were still too aching for her to meet in that quiet, brooding way of his. It wasn't the same as the night he'd left.

"Are you and Naruto upset that you didn't get the glory of dragging me back kicking and screaming?" Sasuke said, half-heartedly sneering. He sounded a lifetime older too. And tired, like he was still carrying an immeasurable burden on his shoulders. They were slumped over now, caustic and drained of pride.

Sakura finally lifted her eyes to his with a tired, bitter half grin.

"Naruto isn't, but I am. I'm happier this way. You've proved yourself less of a threat and they're going to recognize that in the trial. You aren't being dragged back as a criminal," Sakura murmured. "You did that all on your own, Sasuke. You've decided this by yourself."

"Tell me what's next."

Sakura shrugs. A tired demand rather than an actual question - more familiar than anything. But she took it in stride. "Fighting like hell to make sure you don't stay locked up like a criminal. Making sure Tsunade-shisou reinstates you as a shinobi. Trying to sleep." She shifted her weight to her left leg and leaned against her arm, gripping on to the bars for support. "You know nothing's changed right? Why I wasn't able to kill you? Why I'm here?"

Sasuke glares at her, but the muted echo of the water makes it seem washed out. "_Why_?"

"I'm still asking myself the same question."

His hand reaches out past the bars, but the force chakra restraint makes the skin look eerily paler than the rest of him. He looks as if he's holding something heavy the way his fingers shake, but they manage to grasp at her chin. "Don't be a fool. I don't deserve your devotion, Sakura."

"Love," she corrects quietly, pulling his hand from her chin and brushing her fingers against the knuckles, "isn't something you deserve. It comes and it snatches you by the throat. I couldn't stop if I tried, Sasuke. I'm going to be here for as long as you'll let me."

She squeezes his hand while the other grips the bar more viciously than ever. Sakura can feel the power growing just at her fingertips, ready to bend the bars around just to snatch him away from this dark, empty place. She wanted to wrap her arms around him tight enough to keep him from falling apart. He was so obviously covered in fraying seams, so ready to unravel.

Or maybe it was her. Maybe she just needed something to keep herself from falling apart.

"Thank you," he breathes out raggedly, snatching up the words from the bottom of his lungs. His hand squeezes back. "For everything."

Sakura smiled crookedly. "You're welcome."


End file.
